What climate change means for Florida

Florida experienced its wettest summer on record in 2012, in part due to Hurricane Isaac and Tropical Storm Debby.

In 2009, there were 3,323 emergency room visits in Florida due to heat stress.

Over eighty percent of the vulnerable populations—like the elderly, children younger than five, and people with an income below the poverty line—that live in flood hazard areas along the Southeast Coast of the Atlantic are Floridians.

￼In Florida, there were more than 29,700 hospital admissions for asthma in 2011, with an average ￼charge of more than $25,700 for each stay.

Sea level rise, dangerous storm surges, and intense hurricanes already pose serious threats to coastal cities in the Southeast, and climate change will intensify these impacts. The Southeast experienced two billion-dollar extreme weather events in 2012. Decreased water availability is very likely to affect the region’s economy as well as its natural systems. By the end of this century, much of the Southeast will experience more than 100 days above 90°F, which in the absence of adaptive actions is expected to lead to more heat-stress related illness and deaths, decreased agricultural production, and negative impacts on fish and wildlife. Warmer temperatures accelerate formation of smog in urban areas, exacerbating respiratory problems such as asthma.